Expecting hostile diaspora to buttress a collapsing state

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 02:21 GMT]
"Engaging the diaspora for any solution is possible only when humanitarian assistance and protection reach their brethren, war is called off, Tamil self-determination in the island of Sri Lanka is recognized and the LTTE is de-proscribed. Above all, accepting the reality of the crisis that it is a national liberation struggle and seeking solutions not insisting on a united Sri Lanka will tremendously help to ease the situation and even reconciliation," writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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SLA attacks kill 128 civilians in 48 hours

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 01:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army short-range mortar shelling, Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) attacks and gunfire killed 96 civilians, including 19 children within the 'safety zone' Monday. 32 civilians, including 7 children were killed Sunday, according to local aid workers and medical authorities. Around 160 civilians sustained injuries on Monday when Sri Lanka Army stepped up mortar fire, RPG attacks and opened fire from the other side of the lagoon into Puthumaaththa'lan within the 'safety zone'. Increased and systematic attacks on civilians during the day time was targeting to evict civilians from the so-called safety zone, said TamilNet correspondent who visited the site of the carnage.
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Colombo, New Delhi fall back on lure in fighting the diaspora

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 March 2009, 20:23 GMT]
Frustration arising from failure in the military annihilation of the Eezham Tamil struggle led by the LTTE, mounting global opinion in favour of the oppressed, determination of the diaspora and electoral urgency in India are impelling the war partners in Colombo and New Delhi to explore alternative tactics in achieving their goals. While conferences are planned in Singapore and Bangalore to hoodwink the diaspora and Indian public, a member of India’s national security advisory panel wants Colombo and the Tigers to be pressurised to declare a ceasefire. “They must be compelled to accept an international mechanism, so that the civilians are rescued from the war zones. And, what is more, these civilians should be settled in welfare centres, manned by the UN agencies”, he said.
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Tamil trader abducted in Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 March 2009, 19:50 GMT]
Forty year old Gopal Chandrasekaran, a trader by profession was abducted on Saturday night from his residence located along Kubudu Mawatte in Puththa'lam town by a gang of three unidentified persons who arrived in a three-wheeler on the pretext that he was wanted for inquiry, according to a complaint by his wife to the Puththa'lam police.
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Tamil employee in Anuradhapura hospital arrested

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 March 2009, 19:46 GMT]
Anuradhapura police arrested a Tamil employee of Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital Sunday claiming that he had used a Sinhalese name instead of his own name. The police arrested him on complaints that he was often moving in and out of a medical ward where injured Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were being treated, according to media reports.
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Tigers attack STF mini-camp in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 March 2009, 09:35 GMT]
Three Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) commandos were killed and five sustained injuries Sunday night when Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) commandos launched a surprise attack on an STF mini-camp on Chengkaladi - Badulla Road, according to a news release issued by the LTTE Political division in Batticaloa.
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TRO reports detail struggle for survival

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 March 2009, 02:01 GMT]
In a series of reports Lawrence Christy, planning director at the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) details the travails of daily life of the civilians caught in the war, amidst the artillery fire of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA). "From the first shell no one knows how to escape. Before second shell falls all will be in the bunkers. Like parent rabbits and their kids scurrying to a hole when they saw a vulture parents dragging and lifting their children and hurry into the bunkers," Christy says in the 11th March report.
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US Group to file court action against US vote on IMF loan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 14:07 GMT]
Bruce Fein, counsel for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, said Sunday that TAG is preparing to file a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction, and a declaratory judgment to prohibit the United States Treasury Secretary from voting to support the request by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) for $1.9 billion in economic assistance from the International Monetary Fund. TAG’s complaint alleges that a United States vote in favor of the assistance would violate a federal statute, 22 USC 262d, intended to prevent United States financial complicity in harrowing human rights abuses by IMF member governments, Fein said.
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Eastern University Tamil girl student commits suicide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 10:50 GMT]
A girl student of Eastern University set fire to herself Sunday around 9:45 a.m inside the bathroom in Women’s Hostel A in the campus, in her third attempt to commit suicide, sources in Batticaloa said. She succumbed to the burns while being rushed to Chengkaladi Hospital where her body is kept for post mortem examination. On 23 February the women hostel female warden was recovered dead from her room in the hostel while on 26 February a female student hanged herself to death in the hostel.
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TNA parliamentarian reiterates his political stance

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 08:14 GMT]
S. Vino Noharathalingam, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Vanni parliamentarian, released a report to the media Sunday in which he condemns and rejects certain malicious misreporting and misrepresentation of his speech in the Sri Lanka Parliament Thursday, making himself clear on his unwavering commitment to the struggle of the Tamil Nation.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 05:48 GMT]
A Tamil family man from Paavatkodichcheanai who had been stopped on his way by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers at Unnichchai 6th Mile Post SLA camp check point in Vavu’natheevu police division in Batticaloa district is reported missing since Friday, sources in Batticaloa said. The missing man was returning home with 100,000 rupees from sales of his cattle and people had seen him being detained at the SLA check post Friday.
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2 Tamil youths shot, injured in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 05:21 GMT]
Policemen in a sentry post in Chainthamaruthu in Chammaanththu’rai police division in Ampaa’rai district opened fire Friday around 11:30 p.m on two Tamil youths on a motorcycle seriously injuring both, sources in Kalmunai said. The police claimed that they opened fire as the youths failed to obey when asked to stop.
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Trinco Varsha killing; Tamil paramilitary groups blame each other

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 2009, 17:08 GMT]
Two paramilitary groups, Tamil Makal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) led by Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan and other by Karuna Amman alias Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, who resigned from the TMVP and joined the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), are blaming each other for the abduction and killing of six-year-old girl student, Varsha Jude Reggie, according to Colombo media reports.
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US Tamils protest against IMF loan to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 2009, 11:16 GMT]
Dozens of American Tamils on Friday staged a protest rally in front of the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC, urging the IMF to deny funding to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's request for $1.8 billion in loans is under consideration by the IMF. Tamil community fears that the Sri Lankan government would use the funds to perpetuate Tamil genocide while entrenching mass displacement of Tamils confining them to institutionalized internment camps, organizers of the rally said.
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Civil war generation documents life amidst death in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 2009, 04:49 GMT]
The Odour of Death: An Account of People Devoured by War, a collection of narratives and features of personal experience expressed in the form of short stories by 1983-born T. Agiilan, is a significant example of creative writing coming from first hand impressions of a generation of Eezham Tamils that has seen nothing but war ever since birth. Another importance of the book is its documentation of war-torn Vanni of pre 2002 era from the perspectives of a person of that land.
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Ambassador Rice supports UN Council briefing on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 2009, 02:47 GMT]
Speaking at the Security Council Stakeout microphone, March 20, 2009 Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative, said US supports UN Security council briefing on Sri Lanka, and added: "The United States feels strongly about and concerned about Sri Lanka and we support the provision of it to the Council- a full and updated information on the humanitarian situation."
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SLN obstructs resettlement of IDPs in Allaippiddi in the islet of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 15:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) which hold the islets of Jaffna in its control is delaying permission for IDP resettlement in Allaippiddi besides not allowing demining in the coasts of Allaippiddi, according to Jaffna Secretariat officials who had forwarded the applications of 48 Allaippiddi families staying in refugee camps in Jaffna town to SLN officials. Recently, Minister Douglas Devnanda, along with his government, had made much publicity in resettling Allaippiddi IDPs, sources in Jaffna said.
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Tigers seize weapons from SLFP Karuna camp in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 14:14 GMT]
An armed paramilitary person was killed and two T-56 assault rifles were seized Thursday night around 11:00 p.m. when an ambush team of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) carried out a surprise attac on a building at Ku'laththumadu in Vaakaneari in Vaazhaichcheani, according to a news release by the LTTE. The building, used as an office of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was a minor camp of Karuna group, the Tigers said. Dayamohan, the Batticaloa district political head of the LTTE told TamilNet last week that Karuna group had stepped up intimidations against the civilians in Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai districts in recent times.
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Tissainayagam: always agitated against violence, fought for justice for oppressed

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 12:16 GMT]
In statement made to the Court Friday, senior Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam who has been held in detention for more than a year under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), said: "I was and am still an advocate against terrorism. I have criticized terrorism in whatever form. I never advocated violence, my objective was to generate non violent means of resolving the conflict, my research, writings and work was towards achieving this." Many international rights groups have called for the "unconditional release of Tissainayagam, who has been subjected to arbitrary court adjournments and is suffering ill health.” First anniversary of arrest and imprisonment of Tissaianayagam fell on 7th March.
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“SL parliament passes only bills favourable to the Sinhalese” – Ariyanenthiran MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 10:52 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa district parliamentarian, P. Ariyanenthiran, participating in the debate on the bill to issue pension to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) home guards, said that there are more than 45,000 Tamil War Widows in the North and East whom the government does not help while it gives compensation and pension to the members of the three armed forces which clearly shows that it discriminates the Tamils. The bill was submitted in the House when it met Thursday around 9:30 a.m.
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